Luke Ripley is the major character focused in the story .He is an individual finding himself in an extreme state of fear loosing his family. He lives alone in a large house accompanied by some horses and a radio The preceding events of the story depict that he had a family .He and his better half are divorced and one of his son got killed in a clash  as an outcome of jealousy and revenge. Only his daughter, Jennifer who is the youngest child, visit him very often. Being the youngest child; Luke is very much attached to her and care for him.

Luke relishes the time that he spend with his daughter and does not want to loose his daughter .One significant point to be noted is that Luke and his wife are divorced .Their children have undergone distress too .This had created a void in their personality. Now, Luke feels it’s up to him to guide his daughter who is alone and needs his attention.

He knew that this damage can not be repair but at least he can do some remedy to her problems. He finds it hard to order straight away any thing to his children however finds a lenient and moderate way to guide his children. This is perhaps he has been away from his family for a long time since he and his wife divorced. The fatherhood in Luke, never allows him to leave his daughter in lurch although she had killed a man. He seems to be biased and unjust in case of his beloved daughter .Realizing the guilt, that she had killed unintentionally he ignores the crime of his daughter. To him, she is her daughter and that’s all. What if she has committed a murder? His love, patience and temper was challenged and tested when her daughter Jennifer woke him up in the middle of the night to tell him that she has just hit a man, and might have killed him. But Luke does not loose his temper nor did he falter at any moment .He at once decide to rise to the occasion and perform his responsibility as a father. He learned the details of the whole incident .He found the man who was still alive but being powerless to save him at that point, utterly claimed that the man was dead.

The conversation he had with his beloved daughter at this moment is the crux of the whole story. He told her “If one of my sons had come to me that night, I would have phoned the police and told them to meet us with an ambulance at the top of the hill I could bear the pain of watching and knowing my sons’ pain but never my daughter’s.” This illustrates with perfect clarity Luke’s biasness and special care for his daughter which desired to protect her. He did not want to loose her .Here Luke as a caring father dominates over Luke’s conscience.
Another aspect of Luke’s personality is his friendship with Father Paul.

Luke’s friendship with Father Paul shows how religious he was? He does not appear to be very devout and strict; and claim it to be difficult task. However he visits each Sunday Mass Luke wakes up early each morning and rides his horse to the church to visit his best companion. Luke never wants to marry again .Since he describes it as having been in the distant past and not a reoccurring habit. Luke considers his religion and Father Paul as motivational inspiration to keep himself strong when he was left by his family.

Luke Ripley seems to be a caring more for his daughter rather than sons’ .The main focus of this story is not about Luke’s love and care, or his religion; it is about just his fatherly instinct, and emotional attachment to his daughter that desired him to protect her in distress. Hence, in a nut shell, the fatherhood in the individual overwhelmed his conscience.